Spring Break
BLC advocating for sweatshop-free apparel
by Rebecca Klein
Editorial assistant
News | 12/9/08
Posted online at 2:17 AM EST on 12/9/08
The Brandeis Labor Coalition is working on an initiative to urge club leaders to amend their club constitutions to include a pledge to buy only sweatshop-free apparel. The BLC has been meeting with individual club leaders to successfully fulfill this initiative, explained BLC member Kaitlin Schofield '08.
The initiative to focus on raising awareness about sweatshops began two years ago. The BLC made a club packet explaining what sweatshops are and why the BLC is working to eliminate them, Schofield explained.
The BLC's sweatshop information packet now has several definitions for sweatshop. The first definition is "an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law regarding minimum wage and overtime, child labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers' compensation or industry regulation." In addition, it also defines sweatshops as factories often associated with mass-produced items in developing countries, sometimes characterized by instances of sexual harassment and violence against workers who try to unionize.
Schofield said the BLC tried many ways to keep apparel made in sweatshops from being bought and sold on campus before deciding to focus on working with other clubs to limit the amount of merchandise those clubs purchase that is made in sweatshops.
Schofield said the BLC originally focused on working with the Brandeis bookstore to carry sweatshop-free clothing by United Students Against Sweatshops. She said this proved difficult because the store is run by Barnes and Noble, a national chain, and it would be difficult to get them to change the distributor from which they buy apparel.
She said the group then "decided to attack it at a different angle by talking to our peers in clubs and making sure that the clothing and apparel they bought is sweatshop-free," Schofield said.
She explained that because clubs are not run by a giant organization, they can decide individually where they buy their apparel, which helps people realize their own purchasing power.
The initiative to focus on raising awareness about sweatshops began two years ago. The BLC made a club packet explaining what sweatshops are and why the BLC is working to eliminate them, Schofield explained.
The BLC's sweatshop information packet now has several definitions for sweatshop. The first definition is "an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law regarding minimum wage and overtime, child labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers' compensation or industry regulation." In addition, it also defines sweatshops as factories often associated with mass-produced items in developing countries, sometimes characterized by instances of sexual harassment and violence against workers who try to unionize.
Schofield said the BLC tried many ways to keep apparel made in sweatshops from being bought and sold on campus before deciding to focus on working with other clubs to limit the amount of merchandise those clubs purchase that is made in sweatshops.
Schofield said the BLC originally focused on working with the Brandeis bookstore to carry sweatshop-free clothing by United Students Against Sweatshops. She said this proved difficult because the store is run by Barnes and Noble, a national chain, and it would be difficult to get them to change the distributor from which they buy apparel.
She said the group then "decided to attack it at a different angle by talking to our peers in clubs and making sure that the clothing and apparel they bought is sweatshop-free," Schofield said.
She explained that because clubs are not run by a giant organization, they can decide individually where they buy their apparel, which helps people realize their own purchasing power.
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